Elina Niiranen
THE BRAND INTERNATIONALISATION IN SMART CITY BUSINESS-TO- BUSINESS PROFESSIONAL SERVICES CONTEXT
Examiners: Professor Olli Kuivalainen
Associate Professor Anssi Tarkiainen
International Marketing Management (MIMM) -ohjelma Elina Niiranen
Brändin kansainvälistäminen Smart City -asiantuntijapalveluiden yritysmarkkinoinnissa
Pro gradu -tutkielma 2021
101 sivua, 12 kuvaa, 7 taulukkoa ja 1 liite
Tarkastajat: Professori Olli Kuivalainen ja Apulaisprofessori Anssi Tarkiainen Hakusanat: brändi, kansainvälistyminen, brändin kansainvälistäminen, Smart City, asiantuntijapalvelut, yritysmarkkinointi, verkostot
Brändin kansainvälistämistä on tutkittu pääasiassa tuotteiden osalta kuluttajamarkkinoilla, ja palvelut sekä yritysmarkkinointi ovat jääneet vähemmälle tutkimukselle. Älykaupungit ovat teknologian kehittyessä ja maailman väkiluvun noustessa lisänneet kiinnostusta ja vaikka älykaupungeista on jo puhuttu pitkään ei niihin liitettyjä yhtiöitä ole tutkittu brändin kansainvälistymisen osalta. Niihin liittyvä tutkimus on keskittynyt lähinnä älykaupunkien omaan brändiin. Tutkimuksen tavoitteena on ymmärtää yrityksen brändin merkitys asiantuntijapalveluita yrityksille tuottavien yrityksien kansainvälistymisessä. Tutkimuksessa halutaan todentaa, miten aiemman teorian pohjalta luotu teoreettinen viitekehys toimii asiantuntijapalveluita tuottaville yhtiöille älykaupunki kontekstissa. Tutkimus toteutettiin kvalitatiivisena kuvailevana tutkimuksena, jossa hyödynnettiin deduktiivista ja induktiivista lähestymistapaa. Tutkimuksen empiirinen osuus tehtiin monitapaustutkimuksena, jossa haastateltiin neljää älykaupunkiympäristössä toimivaa yhtiötä, jotka tarjoavat yrityksille asiantuntijapalveluita. Yritykset valittiin tutkimukseen niin, että ne antaisivat mahdollisimman monipuolisen ja kattavan kuvan älykaupunkiympäristöstä toimivista asiantuntijapalveluita tarjoavista yhtiöistä.
Empiirinen tutkimus vahvisti monia asioita teoreettisesta viitekehyksestä, mutta toi esille myös selkeitä asiantuntijapalvelubrändille olennaisia asioita. Tutkimuksessa painottui asiantuntijatyössä olevan henkilökohtaisen tapaamisen merkitys sekä brändin rakentamisen osalta asiantuntijuuden esille tuonnin tärkeys. Verkostot ovat myös merkittävässä asemassa älykaupunkiympäristössä. Vahva asiantuntijuus ja ajatusjohtajuuden luonti, systemaattinen sisäinen ja ulkoinen viestintä sekä markkinointi eri kanavia hyödyntäen ja riittävät resurssit tukevat kansainvälistymistä. Alalle on tyypillistä vahva byrokratia ja päätöksentekoprosessit ovat hitaita. Alalla toimii myös monia EU-rahoitteisia hankkeita ja hankkeissa voi olla monia erilaisia osallistujia mm. start-upeista, isoihin yrityksiin ja hallinnollisiin tahoihin. Tutkimus toteutettiin koronapandemian aikana ja haastatteluissa huomioitiin myös vallitseva tilanne, sekä sen merkitykset yhtiöiden toimintaan.
Master’s Program in International Marketing Management (MIMM) Elina Niiranen
The Brand Internationalisation in Smart City Business-to-Business Professional Services Context
Master’s thesis 2021
101 pages, 12 figures, 7 tables, 1 appendix
Examiners: Professor Olli Kuivalainen, Associate Professor Anssi Tarkiainen Keywords: brand, internationalisation, brand internationalisation, Smart City, professional services, business-to-business, networks
Brand internationalisation has been researched mainly with products in the B2C markets, and services and B2B markets have been less researched. Due to the technology changes and world population rise Smart Cities have been in the growing interest. Although Smart Cities have been already a longer time in the public talk, the companies related to Smart Cities have not been researched on the viewpoint of brand internationalisation. The brand related research has mainly been concentrating on Smart Cities’ own brands. Aim of this study is to understand the brand’s role in the internationalisation of the B2B professional services companies offering Smart City related B2B professional services. This study tests how the theoretical framework built according to the earlier studies functions with the compa- nies offering B2B professional services in Smart City context. The study was con- ducted as qualitative descriptive study with deductive and inductive approach. The empirical part was made as multiple case study, in which four companies operating in Smart City environment and offering B2B professional services were interviewed.
In the sample selection of the study the case study companies were chosen to present as diversified and comprehensive view as possible of the companies operating in Smart City environment and offering B2B professional services.
The empirical study valuated many aspects of the theoretical framework but brought out also special characteristics for the B2B professional services. In the study the relevance of the personal meeting was highlighted as well as in the brand building the importance to disclose the expertise. The networks are also material in Smart City context. Strong expertise, generating thought leadership, systematic internal and external communication and marketing using multiple channels and sufficient resources support internationalisation. In Smart City environment strong bureaucracy and slow decision-making processes are typical and there are several projects financed by the EU. In the projects there are many stakeholders, i.a. from start-ups to large companies and administerial bodies. The study was made during the coronavirus pandemic and in the interviews the current situation and its consequences to the companies’ operations were taken into the consideration.
is soon over, and I can start a new page. This has been an important time for me and during the studies I have met many amazing people, hopefully also lifelong friends, and learned new things about myself. Timing for the studies was perfect for me, but while trying to find the perfect time and moment for the thesis I noticed that that time never came, and I just had to take the time. And when I took the time I really enjoyed researching and writing the thesis.
I would not be here without my family and friends, who were always supporting and believing in me. I want to thank you all for your time and support. And I want to give a special thank you to my dear friends Petra and Amanda, who pushed me, when I needed the push, and my loved one and our boys, who believed in me and gave me the time to finish my ‘marathon’. I want to also thank the professors as well as the interviewees from the case companies for giving me their valuable time and information for this study.
I hope that this study will help new businesses to grow and find their ways and resources to internationalisation and bring Finnish know-how to the international fields. Here like in many other stages in life guts, hard work and networks will help you to find your way.
After finishing this thesis, I have succeeded to fulfil one of my dreams and during the studies I was able to keep, nurse and build my others. Never stop believing in you and dreaming. And most importantly – remember to enjoy the life and the dreams you have succeeded, not only chase what you don’t yet have. The life is here and now, not in the future or past.
Espoo, 21.06.2021 Elina Niiranen
B2C – Business to Customer COO – Country-of-Origin
CSR – Corporate Social Responsibility PR – Public Relations
TABLE OF CONTENTS
1 INTRODUCTION ... 9
1.1 Research background ... 9
1.2 Research context ... 10
1.3 Research gaps in studies ... 12
1.4 Research problem, objectives of the study and theoretical framework ... 13
1.5 Delimitations ... 15
1.6 Research strategy and organization of the study ... 16
2 BRANDING ... 18
2.1 Core concepts of branding ... 19
2.2 Brand building ... 21
2.3 Service branding and professional services ... 27
2.4 Business-to-Business branding ... 28
3 INTERNATIONALISATION ... 33
3.1 Internationalisation theories ... 33
3.2 Service internationalisation and market entry strategies ... 35
3.3 Brand internationalisation ... 36
3.4 Resources and networks ... 39
4 THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK ... 41
5 METHODOLOGY AND DATA COLLECTION ... 44
5.1 Methodology ... 44
5.2 Sample selection ... 46
5.3 Data collection ... 49
5.4 Data analysis ... 50
5.5 Reliability and validity ... 51
6 EMPIRICAL RESULTS AND FINDINGS ... 55
6.1 Case analyses ... 55
6.2 Cross-case analysis ... 73
7 DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS ... 90
7.1 Theoretical contributions and implications ... 90
7.2 Managerial implications ... 94
7.3 Limitations and directions for further research ... 96
8 REFERENCES ... 97
APPENDICES ... 101
Appendix 1: Questions for the focused interviews ... 101
LIST OF FIGURES
Figure 1. Research problem, questions, and objectives ... 13
Figure 2. The theoretical framework of the thesis ... 15
Figure 3. Brand identity hexagon ... 20
Figure 4. Customer-based brand equity (CBBE) pyramid ... 22
Figure 5. Dimension of branding strategies of born globals ... 25
Figure 6. Stages and activities in building ICEpower brand ... 26
Figure 7. The buying center’s influential dimensions ... 32
Figure 8. Stages of Branding internationalisation ... 38
Figure 9. Theoretical framework for branding strategies of Born Globals ... 38
Figure 10. The theoretical framework of the thesis ... 43
Figure 11. The special characteristics of the brand internationalisation process of the professional services B2B brand ... 88
Figure 12. The adjusted professional services B2B framework according to the empirical study ... 89
LIST OF TABLES Table 1. Brand-building tools ... 23
Table 2. Trajectory of B2B branding research ... 29
Table 3. Guidelines for B2B (industrial) branding ... 30
Table 4. Examples of the purchase decisions’ criteria in the B2B markets ... 31
Table 5. Branding strategies to pursue an international level ... 36
Table 6. Case companies ... 48
Table 7. Case study summary ... 73
1 INTRODUCTION
“To Brand or Not to Brand”
(Kotler and Pfoertsch 2006, 15)
This is a good question. What is branding – something abstract, just a fancy, trendy word? What is the concreteness behind it and how is branding done and what is the difference in branding products and services or business-to-customers (later B2C) and business to business (later B2B) markets? What is brand’s and branding’s role in the internationalisation? This study answers these questions and introduce basics of brand and branding as well as different internationalisation theories and the linkage of these theories. The empirical part will evaluate the theoretical framework against the empirical study. The interviews were conducted during the coronavirus pandemic and the change of the market environment due to the pandemic was also analysed.
1.1 Research background
Brands and branding itself has a long history. The term brand can be already recognised in the Old Norse, in which the word “brandr” meant “to burn” and was the way how the animals were state to their owners. (Mohr, Sengupta and Slater 2010, 406) Since 1950s branding started to be researched and is now an essential part of marketing. The important aspects in branding nowadays are positioning, brand loyalty, personality, brand equity, communities and subcultures of consumption, relational branding, brand identity, Country of Origin (COO) and Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). (Hampf and Lindberg-Repo 2011, 11-12) In the past 20 years the importance of branding has been slowly recognized in the internationalisation studies (Gabrielsson 2005; Couto and Ferreira 2017) as well as the role of the branding services and the difference between branding B2C and B2B markets have also been recognised in the branding studies (Kotler et al. 2006, 110- 122). According to John Murphy from Interbrands “In the last 30 years, some of the greatest branding successes have come in the area of services” (in Keller 2008, 15).
For the internationalisation there are many ways to a firm to expand its operations abroad. In the beginning of the internationalisation research the most common way to internationalize was follow certain steps in the process, while companies wanted enter markets, which were culturally and geographically near them. After getting familiar with the new markets the companies strengthened the commitments into the markets. Later, the relationships in the market started to be more valued during the internationalisation process and with internet some of the companies are already global straight from the beginning. (Johanson and Vahlne 1990; Johanson and Mattsson 1988; Cavusgil and Knight 2015)
In this study the main aspect is to research the special characteristic related to the brand internationalisation process for the B2B professional services in the Smart City concept.
1.2 Research context
The research context of this study is Smart City and companies offering professional services for Smart City environment. The demand of sustainable development in cities is growing, while the urban population is increasing. Smart cities are suggested to be one solution for this issue (He, Stojmenovic, Liu and Gu 2014, 1).
In worldwide cities also generate 80% of CO2 emissions and consume 75% of the energy production and this is an important reason to find a new sustainable model for the cities (Lazaroiu and Roscia 2012, 326).
A Smart City as a term is commonly used for the convergence of the city and technology (Yigitcanlar, Kamruzzaman, Buys, Ioppolo, Sabatini-Marques, Modeira da Costa and Yun 2018, 145) and more precisely the Smart City concept means “a place where traditional networks and services are made more flexible, efficient, and sustainable with the use of information, digital, and telecommunication technologies to improve the city's operations for the benefit of its inhabitants” (Mohanty, Choppali and Kougianos 2016, 60). And the “different components of a smart city include smart infrastructure, smart transportation, smart energy, smart health care, and
smart technology. These components are what make the cities smart and efficient.
Information and communication technology (ICT) are enabling keys for transforming traditional cities into smart cities.” (Mohanty et al. 2016, 60).
The author of the study has an interest in the brand and new technologies and sees circular economy and Smart Cities as an important way for the civilisation to create sustainable economies and combat the climate change. In 2020 the whole world had been using the yearly natural resources on the 22 August and in Finland already on 5 of April (Salmi 2020). Last year 2020 the world overconsumption day was postponed three weeks due to the coronavirus pandemic (STT 2020), but there needs to be other ways to combat the issues. The researcher noticed that the branding aspects of this field had not been searched much and wanted to combine her own interest in the Smart Cities and create new knowledge for the start-ups and more mature companies in the field to help them to be able to focus their limited resources in the relevant aspects in the marketing and branding activities.
In study made by Axelsson and Granath (2018, 696-699) is seen that in the smart city projects there are several stakeholders involved and the planning process for the smart city projects are long and consist many different activities. According the study the stakeholders, who are involved in the smart city projects, are different bodies of municipalities, public organisations, private firms, and citizen. Also, the EU Commission is sustaining the “smart city” model and funding different projects.
(Lazaroiu et al. 2012, 326-327). The professional services related to Smart City context are provided to the B2B field, while the partners for these professional services are construction companies, cities, transportation companies etc. (Tekes 2017). In this study the case study interviewees, the companies offering professional services in the smart city field, have been chosen in a way that it would cover many different stakeholder groups offering the professional services.
1.3 Research gaps in studies
Internationalisation and branding have been both researched a lot, but the connections between these two theories and how they reflect to each other seems to be still quite unsearched (Couto et al. 2017; Gabrielsson 2005). Branding itself has been studied since 1950s as well as how it is related to products or companies selling well-known products (Hampf et al. 2011, 11-12). Before 1990s the studies related to internationalisation were also mostly made from manufacturing industries (Saarenketo 2004). Later, the internationalisation studies show that service firms have been studied more and they do not necessarily follow the traditional internationalisation models (Coviello and McAuley 1999; Grönroos 2016). Related to these existing studies some research gaps are seen.
First, most of the brand internationalisation case studies have also been made for product companies and product brands. Addition to the studies mentioned above there are also studies made for mostly fashion brands, such as Uniqlo. (Woo 2014).
In the Gabrielsson’s (2005) study part of the companies were also service companies. In the earlier literature internationalisation and branding relation for SMEs are mostly researched within different product categories, often fashion or goods (Woo 2014; Couto et al. 2017).
Secondly there are only few studies in the relation to the professional services branding. In the history the service brand and branding have not been studied separately, the studies have been focusing on product brands (Seyedghorban et al.
2016, 2675) and branding or the services have only been mentioned together with product branding (Kotler et al. 2009, 151-152; Keller 2008, 60). Also, some differences between product and service branding have been recognised and there is certain separation mentioned (Keller 2008, 15-17). According to the recent study of Guenther and Guenther (2019, 99) there is not that much marketing literature related to professional services branding and brands. In their study it is seen that branding is more beneficial for professional services that other B2B services.
The third research gap is brand and branding in the B2B markets. Most of the B2B branding information is adapted from the B2C markets and the general opinion has been that same presumption of branding will occur in both markets. Only later some differences in the B2C and B2B have been recognised and some research started.
(Seyedghorban et al. 2016; Webster, Jr. et al. 2004)
The context of the study Smart City professional services is also narrow and relatively new subject. There were some studies of branding cities as Smart City but not as branding companies offering Smart City services. In this sense the research context Smart City professional services in the B2B market is a unique combination of relatively fractionally studied areas.
1.4 Research problem, objectives of the study and theoretical framework
In this study there are several theories and concepts related to each other. To be able to understand the relations in this study and how the research questions are related into the theories, following figure 1 was drawn.
Figure 1. Research problem, questions, and objectives
The aim of the study is to evaluate alternative approaches of brand internalization considering special characteristics and demands of the professional services and the research problem is:
What are the special characteristics of the brand internationalisation process of the professional services B2B brand?
In this study the research problem has been broken into three different research questions. The first question is related to the ways of the internationalisation.
RQ1: How the B2B professional services brands have internationalised?
The second question analyses wider the brand internationalisation’s processes – how the resources are utilised, and the networks developed.
RQ2: How are resources utilised to internationalise professional services B2B brand and how are networks developed when internationalising professional services B2B brand?
The last research question three is evaluating the adaptation level of the brand in the internationalisation process.
RQ3: What is the degree of the brands’ standardisations on the different markets?
To be able to answer these questions the theoretical framework for brand internationalisation was build based on the literature review. The figure 2 presents the theoretical framework. The framework is based on two brand internationalisation studies for born globals and in this study’s empirical part the framework will be tested for companies offering Smart City professional services for B2B customers.
Figure 2. The theoretical framework of the thesis (adjusted from Gabrielsson 2005, 206; Altshuler et al. 2010, 218)
1.5 Delimitations
In this study the brand internationalisation process has been analysed. To be able to conduct the study there are several delimitations made. First in this study the research has been limited to test the theoretical framework built according to the literature review. During the literature review the researcher have been evaluating different basic theories of the brand and branding as well as the internationalisation.
As the basis of the theoretical framework a brand internationalisation theory and a theoretical framework made have been combined. The theory and theoretical framework were chosen, while the researcher wanted to test, if the same processes used for born globals (partly providing product and partly services) could be used for professional services.
The secondly delimitation was that the Smart City professional services were chosen as the context of the study. Services and professional services are wider concepts, but to be able to research the special characteristics this narrower concept was chosen. Thirdly the Smart City field is technology and innovation orientated, which also reflects that the finding may have some differences. On the
other hand, two studies chosen as the model for the theoretical framework were from the born global companies, which are also often operating in the technology and innovation field.
The case study companies chosen were not presenting all the stakeholders in the Smart City sector but were a comprehensive sample of the professional services providers in the sector. All the case study companies are providing and offering Smart City professional services. Even though all the companies are offering Smart City services the companies are presenting different viewpoints of the companies offering the Smart City related professional services and are on that way given a wide sample for the study.
Lastly in this resources and networks have only been researched on the B2B professional service brand internationalisation and marketing point of view.
1.6 Research strategy and organisation of the study
The reason for this study is to understand the role of the brand in internationalisation process and how a B2B professional services brand can be internationalised in Smart City contexts. In this study qualitative methods are used as research methodology.
This study is conducted as descriptive case study with multiple case studies with deductive and inductive approach. The descriptive case study with deductive and inductive approach has been chosen, while this study’s research strategy is to evaluate, if the existing theories for brand internationalising theories for born globals can be also adapted into B2B service brands and to explore the phenomenon wider and adjust the theories, if needed. The descriptive research is used when the exact phenomenon is known before the data collection (Saunders, Lewis and Thornhill 2016, 177). The deductive approach is in studies verifying existing theories and inductive approach to generate a new theory after exploring the data (Saunders et al. 2016, 145). In this study the existing brand internationalisation theories are evaluated with case study companies in the B2B professional service field to see if
the existing theories would also suit for the professional service brand internationalisation in smart city context. The multiple case study consists of four companies offering professional services for business customers. The main data for this study was collected via focused interviews. The presentative of the companies were interviewed virtually due to the coronavirus pandemic. Also, some questions related to the coronavirus pandemic were included into the study.
The following chapters two and three overview the literature review of the relevant studies of the branding, internationalisation, and brand internationalisation. The fourth chapter presents the theoretical framework build according to the existing theory. The methodology of the study as well as the sample selection, data collections, data analysis and the reliability and validity of the data are overviewed in the chapter five. In the sixth chapter empirical results and findings are shown and the chapter seven the final conclusions will be discussed.
2 BRANDING
Branding has a long history. Already centuries ago, products were marked to state the owner. In today’s world a brand is a name, design, sign, term etc., which differentiates company’s products and services from the competitors. In a marketing point of view branding is the value of the brand for customers and company’s reputation. (Mohr et al. 2010, 406) A brand is also a promise and the brand becomes real for the customers through everything the customers read, see, feel, know, expects, associates and has experienced with the brand. Brand also makes the decision-making process easier for the buyers, while the brand already differentiates the products or services. (Kotler et al. 2006, 5)
After 1950s the brands and branding started to be researched more and more, and companies began to see the advantages of the branding. In the beginning of the brand research in 1950s-1970s concepts like segmentation, loyalty, lifestyle, Marketing Mix, and personality were found. At that time branding was also questioned by some of the consumers, who only wanted to see product information in the labels. On the other hand, research showed that most of the consumers felt branded products important. (Hampf et al. 2011, 11-12).
During the 1970s and 1980s branding became essential part of marketing and new important concept such as positioning, social marketing, relationship marketing and brand equity were introduced. All these concepts were further researched and developed and as an example relational branding became from relationship marketing. New popular concepts after 1990s were also brand identity, Country-of- Origin (later COO), brand communities and subcultures and Corporate Social Responsibility (later CSR). (Hampf et al. 2011, 11-12).
The following chapters will highlight some of the core concepts of branding, how a brand is built, differences in service branding and professional services and B2B branding.
2.1 Core concepts of branding
Branding helps customers to understand the differences between different products or services. By enriching the products and services with a brand’s power it creates value to the company. (Kotler et al. 2009, 151-152) According to the study of Hampf et al. (2011, 14-18) the most important branding concepts in 2010s are positioning, brand loyalty, personality, brand equity, communities and subcultures of consumption, relational branding, brand identity, COO and CSR. Also, Keller (2008, 3, 48, 54, 98) highlights concepts as brand elements, brand positioning, brand equity and brand awareness. The more recent quantitative bibliometric research by Seyedghorban et al. (2016, 2670, 2673) presents also concepts like industrial brand equity, brand awareness and associations, perceived quality, and brand image. In the following chapters some core concepts in branding have been overviewed.
Brand positioning is what brand does and provides for customers (Vaid 2003, 34) and it is also the way how customers see company’s products compared to the competitors (Mohr et al. 2010, 253). It is important to the company to have a positioning strategy, when approaching a chosen segment. Positioning strategy will also change brand identity. Employees have a big role to the brand positioning, while they are representing the brand in customers’ eyes. (Hampf et al. 2011, 15) The brand positioning can also vary in different times, while the meaning of the positioning is to explain to the customers in real-time company’s place in the market and its unique offering (Vaid 2003, 34).
Brand loyalty is a controversial concept, while customer loyalty does not guarantee profitability, in matter of fact normally vice versa. Quite often a company needs to be profitable to be able to have loyal customers. Brand loyalty and brand equity are connected and one way of seeing brand equity is the number of loyal customers.
Brand equity shows the value of the brand and it can be measured with financial aspects, customer-based or combining these two measures. (Hampf et al. 2011, 6, 15-16)
Relational Branding is an integration of relation marketing theories and brands’ roles in the relationships. This integration shows the impact of a brand in the customer’s and company’s relationship. (Brodie et al. 2002 in Hampf et al. 2011, 8, 13) Brand personality is also connected in the relational branding, while personality is according to Aaker (1997, 347) “the set of human characteristics associated with brand”. The communities and subcultures of consumption are small groups of people, who admire one or few brands. For branding they are important concepts, while the group members seem to have strong emotions towards brands, and they are loyal to their brands. (Hampf et al. 2011, 18)
The importance of the COO to the brand has been researched a lot. It seems that the COO does not matter with the everyday products, but with luxury product its essential part of the brand and can also establish the brand identity. On the other hand, the CSR has said to be united with branding in the beginning of 2000s, while the actions of the company create the image of the company to the consumers.
(Hampf et al. 2011, 10-11)
According to the study of Hampf et al. (2011, 20) several of these key concepts together build brand identity. This approach can also be seen in the following Brand Identity Hexagon (figure 3).
Figure 3. Brand identity hexagon (Hampf et al. 2011, 20)
The concept of brand identity itself was created early 1990s. (Hampf et al. 2011, 18 and Gelder 2003, 35) According to the van Gelder (2003, 35) the brand identity is what the brand stands for – a combination of all the elements of the brand. That is why its unique for all the brands. No brand has the same history, ambitions, values, purpose, and visual identity. (van Gelder 2003, 35) Keller (2008, 60) states that the brand identity answers the question “Who are you?” and is the first building block of the brand.
2.2 Brand building
In the branding process the products and services are getting the name and the elements of the brand, the marketers are “introducing” the products or services to the consumers (Kotler and Keller 2016, 146). With branding strategies companies make actions to build the brand. These actions include e.g. “usage experience”,
“choice of brand elements” and “associations with other entities”. Successful branding activities create brand equity, which is company’s most important asset.
(Mohr et al. 2010, 407) Loyalty and brand equity are connected (Hampf et al. 2011, 15) and to be able to build long term customer loyalty careful planning, creative marketing and long-term commitment is needed (Kotler et al. 2009, 150). Behind brand value is persistence strategic brand management work designing and implementing marketing programs and strategies. (Kotler et al. 2009, 150-152) On the other hand to have a successful strategies and to create a brand value, the consumers need to be able to see the equinity of the brand (Kotler et al. 2016 146- 147) According to Kevin Keller branding strategies are especially important for technology companies (n.d. in Mohr et al. 2010, 412).
The figure 4 illustrates Keller’s (2008, 60) Customer-Based Brand Equity (later CBBE) pyramid, in which is shown the four questions customers want to know about brands and six “brand building blocks” inside the pyramid. In the top of the pyramid (“Resonance”) brand has created significant brand equity. (Keller 2008, 60)
Figure 4. Customer-based brand equity (CBBE) pyramid (Keller 2008, 60)
The different stages and the branding objectives at the different stages illustrate the brand building. The stages in the left side are showing the more rational way of the brand building and the right-side stages show a more emotional way to build a brand. To build a strong brand both right and left side stages are needed. The six building blocks for the brand are brand salience, brand performance, brand imagery, brand judgement, brand feelings and brand resonance. (Keller 2008, 60-61)
The essence of the brand salience is the brand awareness, how often and how easily the customers remember the brand and recognise the brand. The brand performance tells how well the product or service fulfil the customers’ functional needs and the brand imagery refers the brand associations related to the product and services. The associations may be e.g. purchase and usage situations or the images related to the brand in the marketing. In the B2B the imagery can relate to the type or size of the company. To create a brand equity the brand needs to have strong, beneficial, and unique brand associations. The brand judgement is based on customers’ opinions on brand imagery and performance. The most important judgements for the brand are judgements on quality, credibility, consideration, and superiority. The brand feelings mean the feelings the customers have with the brand and how the customers feel themselves if they are related to the brand. There are
many possible types of the feelings, but what matters to the brand is how positive the feeling is. Only the positive brand feelings and judgements are beneficial for the brand. (Keller 2008, 60-71)
The brand resonance tells the relationships the customers have with the brand and it can be divided in activity and intensity. Activity is how often the customer buys or uses the brand and the intensity attachment to the brand. The CBBE model illustrates that the brand building has no shortcuts and to be able to build a strong brand and create significant brand equity, there are many aspects to consider.
(Keller 2008, 60, 73-74)
Tools for brand building are the same that are used in the marketing communication and the idea is to inform, remind and persuade the customers about its brands and products. These tools do not differ between B2C or B2C brand building, but the priorities may vary. (Kotler et al. 2006, 110-111). The table 1 illustrates the examples of the brand-building tools and how they are used in the B2B markets.
Table 1. Brand-building tools (adjusted from Kotler et al. 2006, 110-122)
Personal selling is the mainly used brand building tool in the B2B market. In the business market it is more common to serve customers directly that in the B2C
markets. This also mean that the employees in the sales department are playing an important part in the brand building. Personal selling is one part of the direct marketing tool with which the company is able to focus its marketing effort to the acknowledged potential customers. Trade shows and exhibitions are also important for B2B companies to meet many potential customers at the same time and build brand knowledge, awareness, and interest. (Kotler et al. 2006, 110-122)
With the well designed and managed Public Relations (later PR) programs companies can have without pay attention (time or space) in the media, create credibility and attracts the potential customers cost effectively. Good option for the B2B market is to have paid advertisements in the specialised press. In that way the advertisement will find the selected audience and the PR information would be combined with the company’s own message. Sales promotion is more used in the B2C markets, in the B2B markets sales promotion could be discounts or in the exhibitions business and sales-force promotion and the promotions would be targeted to the persons involved in the buying process. (Kotler et al. 2006, 110-122)
The following figures 5 and 6 demonstrate two different studies related to the brand building during the brand internationalisation. The brand internationalisation will be more discussed in the chapter 3.3 and these two studies will present the brand building dimensions and different stages of the process.
The study of “Branding Strategies of Born Globals” illustrates the brand strategy with three dimensions as shown in the figure 5 (Gabrielsson 2005, 205).
Figure 5. Dimension of branding strategies of born globals. (Gabrielsson 2005, 205)
Those three dimensions of the branding strategy are “brand-building approach”,
“type and number of brands used” and “degree of standardisation”. The “brand- building approach” consist of those decisions made, when building a brand, which are the core essence of the brand, how the brand will be marketed (push/pull) and will the brand be first tested in one market before entering other markets (prototype) or has it been already designed for multiple markets (pattern). In the dimension “type and number of brands used” is evaluated the brands structure and architecture in the international market, which means that how many brands the firms are offering internationally and how the offered brands are situated in the organisation. The third dimension “degree of standardisation” refers to the standardisation level of the brand in different countries. (Gabrielsson 2005, 201-205)
The figure 6 shows an example of a branding strategy for a born global firm. It illustrates the stages and activities in building ICEpower brand (Altshuler and Tarnovskaya 2010, 218).
Figure 6. Stages and activities in building ICEpower brand. (Altshuler et al. 2010, 218)
The framework (figure 6) identifies that to be able to start to build a brand it is important to have good product and good vision. This framework also highlights visual brand image, one brand name and the importance of the marketing channels.
The stage 1 includes giving a name to the company and the product, creating visual identity and to start promotional activities. The ICEpower brand noticed early on that they had to focus on one brand name and developed visual identity through website and series of branded marketing materials. The promotional brand building activities were direct sales, attending trade fairs, different PR activities and word-of-mouth marketing. The co-founder was already well-known in the scientific scene and the company was making presentations in the relevant conferences. The company first targeted the professional audio makers and later the manufacturers of the consumer audio in the consumer trade shows. At the same time the company was directly promoting their product in the customer meetings and was able to get coverage from leading publications. (Altshuler et al. 2010, 217-219)
The next step for the company was to building reputation in the B2B market with excellent technology and products as well as with marketing activities and successful work with the customers. The satisfied customers also enabled the word- of-mouth marketing in the market. The other marketing activities made were continues work in PR, trade fair presentations and direct sales. The third stage of the brand building was to build a consumer brand. With the premium technology and professional work, the company had already a good reputation in the industry,
the company was able to enter the consumer markets through their customers.
(Altshuler et al. 2010, 219-221)
When speaking about technology companies the most beneficial is to build a strong corporate brand to be able to create stability in financial markets and long-term customer relationships. Branding is important for small companies when they want to have direct customer relationships. At that stage the quality of the product and customer experience are very critical. (Mohr et al. 2010, 412, 416)
2.3 Service branding and professional services
Branding is important for service companies, while the services and the quality of services are dependent on persons providing the services. When marketing services branding is a tool to make the service offering more concrete for the customers for example using brand symbols and giving own names for certain brand offerings. (Keller 2008, 15-17)
In the history there has been different strong service brands, but only in the beginning of 2000 the sophistication and pervasiveness of it became agitated (Keller 2008, 15). Difference in service branding in the sense of branding is that services are intangible in nature. For this reason, it is important to maximise the service quality and understand the numerous ways that affect the customers service experience. Use of many different brand elements make the brand more tangible and retrievable. To be able to build the brand image and brand awareness for the brand name have e.g. slogans, logos, and persons great importance. It is also essential that the brand name is easy to pronounce and remember. The marketing communication build the brand personality and the idea of the communication programs is to be fully integrated into the service experience and evolve over time.
With the services it is also important to consider brand hierarchy as well as brand portfolio. In the vertical extensions the sub-branding is often made with modifier or individual brand name combined with the company brand. (Keller 2008, 652-655)
The service business means that the activities performed are charged (Keller 2008, 188). The professional services mean e.g. engineering services and consulting services and the companies operating in the B2B service industry are facing a fierce competition. Many of these companies try to get a competitive advantage through branding. (Guenther et al. 2019, 88) For the professional service companies the branding seems to be more relevant than the other B2B service companies. From the corporate brands in professional services the shareholders also except more sales than from the brand specified in certain service. (Guenther et al. 2019, 99) In the Guenther et al.’s (2019, 99-100) study this was only seen for a professional services companies, not for other B2B services and they recommend that professional services should use the company’s corporate brand.
When considering the standardisation and customisation across the international markets the services are included into the list of most likely candidates that can have the similar marketing strategies, when entering in different markets. Also, the B2B products using the corporate image and the brands positioned mostly related to the COO are in this list. (Keller 2008, 618-619) In the next chapter the special characteristics of the B2B branding are discussed.
2.4 Business-to-Business branding
B2B branding research is still at the beginning phase and the most researched areas have been brand power, industrial brand equity, managing brand equity and buyer attitudes. In the table 2 is presented the development of B2B branding research.
During the years 2007–2016 the studies have been focusing on brand equity and brand’s role as strategic asset for industrial companies. For the areas of future research is shown B2B service branding and especially the role of solution branding at B2B market. (Seyedghorban et al. 2016, 2675)
Table 2. Trajectory of B2B branding research (Seyedghorban et al. 2016, 2675)
In the B2B branding buyer-employee relationships and the internal communication of the brand strategy are important. When the company have a clear and consist internal brand message, will the employees consistently deliver the same brand message to the buyers (Leek and Christodoulides 2012; Webster, Jr. et al. 2004) and the buyers will adhere to the brand’s functional and emotional values (Leek et al. 2012). All the employees should understand their part in the brand strategy and especially the importance of the systematic brand message should be integrated into the trainings, compensation, and incentives of the sales department (Webster, Jr. et al. 2004). This enables the development of the strong relationships with the brand, employees and the company and creates exit barriers for the buyers (Leek et al. 2012). According to Webster, Jr et al. (2004, 398) there are certain guidelines for the B2B branding in the industrial markets. These guidelines are presented in the table 3.
Table 3. Guidelines for B2B (industrial) branding adjusted from Webster, Jr. et al.
(2004, 398)
Most of the B2B branding information is adapted from the B2C markets and the general opinion has been that same presumption of branding will occur in both markets. The differences between the B2C and B2B can be seen for example in the buying behaviour. (Seyedghorban et al. 2016; Webster, Jr. et al. 2004) In the B2B market purchases are more complex with higher volume and financial value. The buyers have a great responsibility and the decision-making process depends between businesses. (Seyedghorban et al. 2016) Also the functional values are
highlighted in the decision-making process and for the brand development the emotional qualities such as trust and providing reassurance were considered important in the sense of risk reduction in the decision-making process. (Leek et al.
2012) As an example, a strong brand can reassure buyers (Keller 2008, 12) or if a company offers a service infrastructure, will that reduce buyers’ risks and reassure them in the industrial B2B markets (Leek et al. 2012). On the other hand, it seems that the environmental factors, such as recession, have a negative correlation for the brand’s role. In the recession the buyers would in most cases prefer quality and lower price over premium brand. (Leek et al. 2012) It is also important to understand that industrial buyers are humans and their individual preferences and personality types are influencing the buying decisions (Kotler et. al 2006, 30). The table 4 shows examples of the issues influencing the purchase decisions in the B2B market and the figure 7 the buying center’s influential dimensions.
Table 4. Examples of the purchase decisions’ criteria in the B2B markets
Figure 7. The buying center’s influential dimensions (Kotler et al. 2006, 30)
The understanding of the special characteristics in the industrial market is important to be able to develop branding strategies. The successfully designed and managed branding strategies will create value for the firm and customers, stronger buyer- employee relationships, better-differentiated product offerings, customer loyalty and better responses to company innovation. (Webster, Jr. et al. 2004) A strong B2B brand may also give the company a competitive advantage. In B2B sector there are many segments and people involved, which makes B2B branding also complex and requires adaptation in marketing actions. (Keller 2008, 11-12) Guenther et al. (2019, 99) also agree that the brands may be hard to build or maintain but will create value for the B2B companies.
3 INTERNATIONALISATION
Internationalisation is a concept, which explains ways how companies can build their business abroad. During the 1980’s the research of firm’s internationalisation started to expand (Johanson et al. 1990). The most well-known theories are Uppsala model, Network approach and Born Globals (Johanson et al. 1990; Saarenketo 2004;
Cavusgil et al. 2015). Internationalisation also includes the choice of the market entry strategy (Hollensen 2011, 9). In this chapter the basic internationalisation theories, market entry strategies and internationalisation of the services and brands will be overviewed.
3.1 Internationalisation theories
As mentioned above the most well-known theories are Uppsala model, Network approach and Born Globals (Johanson et al. 1990; Saarenketo 2004; Cavusgil et al.
2015). All those theories are overviewed in this chapter.
The Uppsala Internationalisation Model
The Uppsala Internationalisation Model was made in 1977 (Vahlne and Johanson 2017). The firm’s internationalisation has been seen as a process in this model.
During the internationalisation process the firm increases its involvements abroad step by step by getting more knowledge of the foreign market and operations as well as growing engagements abroad. In the model is assumed that the current market commitment and market knowledge impacts firm’s decisions of the internationalisation steps. The knowledge and observations of the market opportunities and problems are assumed to be collected through business activities, which also create new business opportunities. Two patterns in the firm’s internationalisation process is also explained by this model. The first pattern presents the establishment chain for the international operations in a new country (starting stepwise from direct export and ending even in manufacturing) and the second pattern shows that the selected target countries are countries, which are
familiar to the company, countries where the firm sees potential but the uncertainty of the market is low. (Johanson et al. 1990)
Network approach
Network approach is a network-based view of internationalisation based on Swedish researched in the middle of 1980s. The approach has been developed by researchers, who had earlier knowledge of industrial firms and firms’
internationalisation processes, distribution systems and interactions between firms in purchasing and marketing. The researchers saw that the industrial system consist of companies, which are dependent on other companies through use of the goods and services, distribution, and production. The Network approach relies on these relationships. The internationalisation of the firm happens by creating relationships with the participants of foreign networks. The relationships are made in three different ways; 1) contacting new firms in the national nets, 2) increasing commitments with already known nets abroad and 3) increment co-operation in national nets. (Johanson and Mattsson 1988)
Born Globals
The born globals phenomenon was recognised already in the 1980s. The born global term started to be used for the young, entrepreneurial firms, who had international business early on. (Cavusgil et al. 2015) One definition by Knight and Cavusgil (2004, 124) for born globals is “business organisations that, from or near their founding, seek superior international business performance from the application of knowledge-based resources to the sale of outputs in multiple countries”. In his research Saarenketo (2004) states that there have been several other terms for this same phenomenon from different researchers, but nowadays quite many researchers have been adapting the term born globals. The born globals’
entry mode is often exporting, and they see the whole world as their market. The size of the domestic market doesn’t matter for the born globals. In Europe 20% of the new firms are seen as born globals. (Cavusgil et al. 2015) Born global are also quite generally service firms (Grönroos 2016).
3.2 Service internationalisation and market entry strategies
According to the studies of the internationalisation of the firm the small- and medium-sized firms (SMEs) in the industrial field are researched a lot. The internationalisation theories are mostly explaining how the internationalisation happened and why, not how the companies can have a long-term advantage of internationalisation or how the internationalisation processes relate to branding strategies (Autio 2017; Couto et al. 2017).
The internationalisation of services was not at first researched as the internationalisation was on the industrial field. During the last 20 years the research has been expanding, because of the growing market of services. In the service field there are characterised different export and entry strategies. (Grönroos 2016) According to Grönroos (2016) these strategies are direct export, systems export, direct entry, indirect entry, and electronic marketing. Direct export in services relate to that that the service provider goes to the foreign market for the service production, systems export that the service providers follow the clients to the foreign market, direct entry that the service provider moves abroad to operate, indirect entry on the other hand means that a foreign firm is providing the services without direct control of the service provider as e.g. with license agreement. The last strategy electronic marketing refers to internationalisation through internet. (Grönroos 2016)
If speaking about market entry strategies in general are the market entry strategies the way how companies expand their business abroad. There are different types of entry modes and those modes have different levels of risks and control opportunities for companies. Export modes include agents and distributors. These modes are highly flexible and has low risk and control. Intermediate modes are joint ventures and strategic alliances, which means that they have split ownership and shared control and risk. In the hierarchical mode the company has an own subsidiary. This consist low flexibility and high risk and control (Hollensen 2011, 9).
3.3 Brand internationalisation
When talking about international brands it has seen that the trends and changes have been favourable for the business markets and the requirements for adaptation in market offerings are decreasing. International and global branding seems to be beneficial for the companies, while companies could use their market offering to pursue international/global branding. In a long run this would mean that with the same offering the B2B companies could receive greater economies of scale in the production, possible long-term growth and decrease marketing expenses. Greater growth potential has also greater risks and a well-designed branding strategy and proper implementation is needed. (Kotler et al. 2006, 88-90) The table 5 presents different brand strategies for international brands.
Table 5. Branding strategies to pursue an international level (Kotler et al. 2006, 88- 90)
In the real life it might not be possible to follow only one of these strategies and it is common that there are different variations of the strategies, while the international markets are developing, and adaptation is needed. In B2B market combination of corporate and product brands seems to create great results. The corporate brand also has dominance in the B2B branding strategies. (Kotler et al. 2006)
“The branding strategy with the highest potential for B2B companies is a strong corporate brand in relation with few product brands.” (Kotler et al. 2006, 90)
In the earlier literature internationalisation and branding relation for SMEs are mostly researched within different product categories, often fashion or goods (Woo 2014;
Couto et al. 2017). The brand internationalisation or rather globalisation have been also researched through studies of born globals’ branding strategies and branding strategies of large, already multinational corporations (Gabrielsson 2005). As mentioned in the Internationalisation chapter 3.1 the born globals are small, entrepreneurial firms, who internationalise already from start. Within the born globals there are also many service firms.
In the earlier studies there were also a study from Finland made for 30 Finnish born global SMEs within technology field. In the study came out the importance of the global branding and standardisation. Important aspects for the branding were managerial implications, the selection of a single or multiple branding approaches and standardisation of the branding strategies. (Gabrielsson 2005)
In the earlier studies few frameworks were used to illustrate the branding process.
The figure 8 illustrate the brand’s internationalisation process of goods and it made based on the idea that the brand management would be related to the stages of the internationalisation of the firm. (Fan 2008 in: Couto et al. 2017)
Figure 8. Stages of Branding internationalisation (Fan 2008 in: Couto et al. 2017, 196)
The figure 9 is taken from a research of born globals branding strategies. The Gabrielsson’s (2005, 206) framework shows the branding strategy and its components as well as the variables affecting branding strategy according to the earlier theories.
Figure 9. Theoretical framework for branding strategies of Born Globals.
(Gabrielsson 2005, 206)
According to the several studies there seems to be some patterns having an influence on successful branding in internationalisation (Gabrielsson 2005; Altshuler et al. 2010). The patterns from the earlier literature have been gathered in this theoretical framework build by Gabrielsson (2005). Gabrielsson’s (2005) study in which the framework was built, evaluates i.a. does the founders or key personnel knowledge and experience enable the global brand recognition or not, do the born global standardised global brands, do the born global have multiple branding strategies and do the B2B companies use push approach and B2C push and pull approach. After the evaluation it was seen that in many cases founders or key personnel knowledge and experience enabled the internationalisation. The findings from the study were also that standardisation and global branding became more important further in the internationalisation process and the branding strategies varied depending on the internationalisation path. For the B2B companies the branding strategies might have differed between different countries before the global presence, meaning that the B2B companies were developing their brand on the way and in the global presence the brand was mainly kept the same. (Gabrielsson 2005, 217-218) In the Gabrielsson’s (2005) study there were also service companies included into the study and the B2B and B2C segments are both evaluated along the study.
3.4 Resources and networks
While this study is concentrating on professional services in the B2B market with the Smart City context, the born globals’ studies seem to be more relevant for this study than the studies related to goods. For this reason, the resources and networks has been first studied according to the two studies related to born globals. According to the Gabrielsson (2005) the important issues for the born globals branding achievements are qualities, global orientation, and know-how of the leaders of the company. In the Altshuler et al.’s (2010, , 217-219) study the co-founder was also already well-known in the scientific scene and the personal selling, word-of-mouth marketing, relevant conferences and coverage in the leading publications were the case company’s main brand building activities.
Secondly resources and networks have also been mentioned in many of the earlier chapter related to the brands and brand building. When speaking of the resources the personal selling is said to be the mainly used brand building tool in the B2B market. This means that the people in the sales department have an extremely important role in the brand building. For the B2B companies also trade shows and exhibitions are important places to meet potential customers and build brand awareness, interest, and knowledge. (Kotler et al. 2006, 110-122) Kotler at al. (2006, 110-122) also point out that specialised press is a good marketing channel in the B2B field. The personal selling is also linked to the networks and for example Mohr et al. (2010, 412, 416) highlight the importance of the long-tern customer relationships. To be able to have long-term relationships the quality of the product and the customer experience is critical (Mohr et al. 2010, 412, 416) as well as when speaking of the professional services the professional services are dependent on persons providing the services (Keller 2008, 15-17).
On the networks point of view the different internationalisation theories depend often from the networks the company has. In the Uppsala internationalisation model the companies often target the countries, which are familiar for the companies (Johanson et al. 1990) or in the network model the internationalisation is build according to different networks (Johanson et al. 1988). For the born globals they normally see the whole world as their market already straight from the beginning (Cavusgil et al. 2015).
4 THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK
According to the literature review of this study brands are critical for the companies, especially for technology companies (Mohr et al. 2010, 412). Altshuler et al. (2010, 213) specifies that for the technology companies the branding gives the companies a possibility to differentiate themselves and according to the Guenther et al. (2019, 88) the professional services are also trying to get an competitive advantage through branding. To be able to answer the research problem and the research questions of this study the theories of the literature review were analysed related to the research problem;
What are the special characteristics of the brand internationalisation process of the professional services B2B brand?
and research questions:
RQ1: How the B2B professional services brands have internationalised?
RQ2: How are resources utilised to internationalise professional services B2B brand and how are networks developed when internationalising professional services B2B brand?
RQ3: What is the degree of the brands’ standardisations on the different markets?
According to the literature review the born global studies are more relevant for this study than the studies related to goods. The Altshuler et al.’s (2010) study shows the framework from stages and activities in building an ICEpower brand for a born global company and the Gabrielsson’s (2005) study presents the branding strategies for born global companies. Both frameworks have similarities with the research questions, but neither covers all the aspects. The Altshuler et al. (2010) framework was more for a product brand’s internationalisation, the Gabrielsson’s (2005) also had partly service companies and the combination of these frameworks showed many aspects related to the company branding and internationalisation.
Both of these frameworks were already a little older (2005 and 2010) but were consisting many of the basic branding literature and sources, many of the same sources of the basic theories as used in this study’s literature review. The Altshuler et al. (2010) also refers to the Gabrielsson’s (2005) study in their research. Based on the literature review the author decided to combine these two frameworks to bring together the branding strategy and brand building process. Even though the born globals can be offering both products and services the earlier study examples seem to be more concentrating on the products and for this reason a combination of these two studies were a good starting point for this study. The combination of these two frameworks can be seen in the figure 10. The empirical study will evaluate the theoretical framework.
Figure 10. The theoretical framework of the thesis (adjusted from Gabrielsson 2005, 206; Altshuler et al. 2010, 218)
5 METHODOLOGY AND DATA COLLECTION
In this study is researched the role of the brand in the internationalisation process and the context of this study are companies providing professional service in smart city field. This study was conducted as a qualitative descriptive multiple case study with deductive and inductive approach. This chapter will introduce the research methods used in this study, present the sample selection process, give the overview of the case companies, summarise the data collection and analysis processes and analyse the reliability and validity of the study.
5.1 Methodology
In the qualitative research method, the researcher gains a comprehensive view of the studied phenomenon through seeing the normal situations in the studied field (Miles and Huberman 1994, 6). Saunders et al. (2016, 177) state that the descriptive research is used when the exact phenomenon is known before the data collection and according to Yin (2003, 5) the descriptive case study describes the context’s complete phenomena. The aim of this study is to evaluate, if the theoretical framework build from the existing theories in internationalising born global companies (including both product and service brands) can be also adapted into B2B professional service brands and for that reason the qualitative research method and the descriptive strategy was chosen. As a research strategy both deductive and inductive approach have been chosen. According to Saunders at al. (2016, 145) the deductive approach is used when testing a theory and inductive approach when exploring and building new theory. In this study both deductive and inductive approaches are used while in the literature review two basic theories were chosen to be tested and during the study also the other theories have been analysed with the empirical data and included in the new revised theory. To increase the validity of the study the multiple case study method was chosen instead of the single case study. In reference to Eisenhardt et al’s study in 2007 the multiple case study enables to find more detailed information of the issue studied and to create a stronger theory, as Yin (2009, 58) also highlights that the number of replications make the result of the multiple-case more certain.
In the qualitative research the samples are normally smaller than in the quantitative research. The qualitative research is made as in-depth study with small samples and the samples are often rather purposive that random, while the universe is often more limited due to the initial definition and while random sampling may cause biased samples with small number of cases. (Miles et al. 1994, 27) In the multiple case study, the typical sample size thinking is not used. The idea in sampling is more to evaluate how many case replications the researcher wants for the study and how much would be needed. The number of replications make the result of the multiple-case more certain. In straightforward theories and issues, which does not need high certainty two to three literal replication could be an adequate amount and for high certainty for subtle theory would need five to six or more replication. (Yin 2009, 58)
The sampling in multiple case study need to be carefully thought through as well as in the qualitative research the random sampling is not recommended. The sampling frame, guided the conceptional framework and research questions, is required.
(Miles et al. 1994, 27-28) In this study the sampling frame was evaluated to be companies offering B2B professional services in the Smart City context and the interviewees themselves would be either persons offering professional services in the Smart City field, working closely with the professionals or working in the marketing or communication department of the company. The sample size was first set from three to five companies, while the theoretical framework tested was rather straightforward, but high certainty wanted.
The data collection in the case studies, the case study evidence, may come in different sources. These sources are archival records, direct observations, documents, interviews, physical artifacts, and participant-observation. (Yin 2009, 98). According to Yin (2009, 106) the interviews are one of the most important sources of evident in the case studies. While the aim of this study was to evaluate the feasibility of the theoretical framework in the Smart City context the interviews were selected as the case study evidence.
For the interviews there are three different types of them – in-depth interview, focused interview, and survey. The in-depth interview is a wider interview, which maybe one-time event or an extended period. The interviewee is asked related to facts and opinions and the interviewee can be seen more as an “informant”. The focused interview is normally a shorter, one-time event and even though the interview is often made with conversational manner and remains open-ended, the interview mainly focuses in certain questions. The survey consists of more structured questions and can also be used as a source of quantitative data. (Yin 2009, 107-108) In this study the theoretical framework was tested in the Smart City context and the interview would have certain questions based on the framework.
Also, the conversations manner was needed to get fresh commentary from the interviewees. For this reason, the focused interview was chosen as an interview type for this survey.
As for data analysis there are several relevant data analysis possibilities in the case study method such as explanation building, pattern matching, logic models, time- series analysis, and cross-case syntheses (Yin 2009, 162). In this study the analysis method used is pattern matching. Pattern matching can be used both explanatory and descriptive case studies as well as in single and multiple case studies. When using the pattern matching analysis method in the descriptive study the specific variables for the predicted patterns need to be defined before the data is collected.
(Yin 2009, 136-137). The aim of this descriptive multiple case study is to evaluate, if the theoretical framework build according to the existing theory can be adapted into B2B professional service brands and the specific variables can be seen in the theoretical framework build before the data collection. The pattern matching is used to evaluate if the different theoretical predictions replicate across the cases. In this study the cases are first overviewed separately and after that the cross-case analysis is made.
5.2 Sample selection
As mentioned in the methodology chapter 5.1 the sampling in multiple case need to be carefully thought through an as well as in the qualitative research the random
